Any additional cuts to the operating budget for Woodford County Public Schools will likely impact student services, Board of Education Chair Adam Brickler told other board members during its meeting on Monday.
Recent cuts totaling $5 million in operating expenses have gotten the district out of deficit spending, Finance Director Jason Gribbins said, but no dollars are available to replace buses, make other purchases or add student programs.
Having sufficient revenue to pay rising operating costs will allow the district to avoid making more cuts, which is “going to turn into jobs and that’s what we want to avoid,” Brickler said.
“When you start cutting jobs,” he added, “that’s student services.”
Gribbins said about 84 percent of the district’s operating budget goes to payroll, so if “you have to make large cuts, unfortunately it has to come from the payroll side.”
Quoting someone from a recent budget committee meeting, he said, “You can’t cut yourself to greatness.”
Their cautionary words came after schools Superintendent Lori Jones, district leaders and board members celebrated the high-performance ratings of Woodford County schools in last spring’s state assessment.
During an overview of the results, Chief Academic Officer Ryan Asher said the district’s overall performance level was green (high) at the elementary schools and Woodford County Middle School, and blue (highest) at Woodford County High School. The percentage of students reaching proficiency in reading and math continues to climb across grade levels, he said.
“As I’ve studied other districts,” Jones told board members, “there really are none that I’m aware of that are our size that have made the significant financial cuts we’ve had to make and still maintained” academic achievement.
The BOE voted 4-1 to hold the local property tax rate at 63.3 cents per $100 of assessed value. A petition seeking to recall that rate, which is projected to generate more than 4 percent in additional revenue, is currently circulating.
To be successful, the recall petition will need to have 1,517 qualified signatures, which is 10 percent of the 15,173 votes in Woodford County in the last presidential election on Nov. 5, 2024, according to Woodford County Clerk Sandy Jones. The petition period of 45 days will end on Nov. 8, and Jones will have 30 days for signature verification (Dec. 8, 2026), according to a 2026 statutory timeline provided by Jones. The BOE will have 15 days after certification to rescind or reconsider its tax levy, or a special election will be held to allow the voters to decide if they support a recallable rate or a 62.5 cent non-recallable rate.
Prior to the BOE approving the recallable rate, Gribbins said holding the rate will actually generate 1.86 percent more revenue (about $700,000) than last year, because the school district is projected to lose about $374,000 in state funding this year.
“I wouldn’t be a good superintendent if I didn’t advocate for our employees and our students to ask our community for support,” Jones, who has strongly recommended the board approve the 63.3 cent rate, told the BOE prior to its vote to approve the recalled rate.
On Monday, Gribbins shared a pie graph showing 65.2 percent of the district’s payroll dollars are paid to certified staff, 33.5 percent to classified staff and 1.3 percent to subs (as of September).
Broken down by level, he said about 37 percent of payroll dollars are spent at elementary, 21 percent at Woodford County High School and 14 percent at Woodford County Middle School, with about 23 percent of the dollars being spent on personnel supporting all the schools.
During his financial report, Gribbins said the district has almost $300,000 in additional revenue, and expenditures are down by about $1.6 million compared to a year ago.
“That’s 4 percent swing year over year” – nearly $2 million – during the first quarter, he said. If that trend can continue during the next three quarters of the fiscal year, that would put the district in “a really good position” financially, he said.
Not knowing what will happen over the next three quarters, Gribbins said he could not predict if additional budget cuts will be necessary next school year.
The food service has a fund balance of about $200,000, but four dishwashers are 18 to 23 years old and will need to be replaced in the near future, Gribbins said. Three walk-in freezers are about the same age, he said, so they will also need to be replaced soon. “Those are probably more of a concern for me,” he said, “because if one of those goes out, we’re losing $20,000-$30,000 worth of food…”
Before spending dollars in the food service fund balance, board member KT Gould said she prefers waiting until the purchases are necessary because of the recent price increase for student meals. “We cannot continue to put that burden on our families without just cause,” she said.
The district can put a plan together so all those purchases are not made at once, Gribbins said. He said it’s also important to increase that self-sustaining fund balance so food services has money to replace equipment when needed.
Gribbins said the startup costs for the Little Legacy Hive wrap-around daycare program created a deficit of about $70,000 in the Explorer Time Company fund. But he said he’s not concerned because of revenue that will be generated by the daycare program.
Legacy Hive currently has 33 children, with 11 of them being the children of school employees, he said.
Score Card Check-In
Jones, Asher and Chief Operating Officer Josh Rayburn gave a 45-day check-in on a district Score Card tracking progress in the four pillars of its strategic plan: student success and engagement, staff services and retention, community and caregiver partnerships, and stewardship of finances.
Responding to a question about artificial intelligence, Rayburn said a policy is being built with a holistic plan including the ethical use of AI. “It’s a tool that can either help you cheat, or it’s a tool that can help you learn. And so we want to focus on (using AI as a) tool that can help you learn,” he said, noting AI “is something that is very heavy on the minds of our teachers right now.”
Jones provided an update on an Alumni Association for Woodford County Public Schools, which now has over 200 members, with a goal of reaching 5,000, she said. Also, the district has begun the process of making improvements to its website for users, she said.
WCMS presentation
Sixth graders from Woodford County Middle School talked about their experiences during a recent partnership with the City of Versailles when they got to see government agencies in action.
The Civic Responsibility and Wellness Project field trip was an opportunity for students to “engage with our community in a meaningful way,” WCMS Principal Rebecca Preston told the BOE.
During their visits to the Versailles Police, fire and other government departments, the sixth graders saw what city employees do to keep residents safe and how they make a difference in the lives of local families by providing public services, including drinking water.